1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a wheel bearing support for a steerable driven wheel having a drive shaft and a wheel hub, where the rotational axis of the drive shaft is eccentric to the rotational axis of the wheel hub, and where the wheel hub is rotatably mounted on a wheel bearing support carrier by means of an input side and an output side bearing arrangement.
2. Description of the Related Art
U.S. Pat. No. 4,418,785 (Ehrlinger et al.) teaches a wheel bearing support with an eccentric drive in which the drive shaft drives the wheel hub by means of a set of spur gears. The wheel hub is rotatably mounted by a pair of tapered roller bearings which are located as close to each other as possible, and are separated only by a load-absorbing shoulder. In this arrangement, the risk of encountering excessive loads can be limited only by arranging the tapered roller bearings as close as possible to the central plane of the wheel.
This wheel bearing support suffers from the disadvantage that torque must be transmitted to the wheel hub by means of a shaft which is restricted in diameter by the surrounding bearings, and hence is subject to high stresses. In addition, high loads are experienced in the wheel bearing support carrier, the wheel hub and the bearings, since they can develop only limited moment capacity in their seats due to their close proximity to each other.